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From: cage@fmeed1.UUCP (Russ Cage)
Newsgroups: sci.energy,sci.electronics,sci.physics
Subject: Re: solar cells
Summary: Some chemical poisons are eternal.
Message-ID: <9231@fmeed1.UUCP>
Date: 2 Jan 91 22:40:36 GMT
References: <1990Dec31.171413.18138@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <1990Dec31.220520.27738@zoo.toronto.edu> <37448@cup.portal.com> <1991Jan2.015717.23554@amd.com> <37487@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: russ@m-net.ann-arbor.mi.us (Russ Cage)
Followup-To: sci.energy
Organization: Ford Motor Co., Electronics Div., Dearborn, MI
Lines: 25

In article <37487@cup.portal.com> Ordania-DM@cup.portal.com (Charles K Hughes) writes:
>  Chemical "poisons" can be broken down using current technology.

Oh, really?  Arsenic, lead and cadmium are chemical poisons.  They
cannot be broken down by anything other than NUCLEAR processes.
They are used in solar-cell systems, in the cells themselves
and in batteries.

Widespread use of solar-electric power puts large amounts of all
of these substances into small packages widely spread.  Some will
inevitably leak.

>  Nuclear poisons can't be broken down by us.  They will decay over time,
>but since we can break down chemical poisons it makes no sense whatsoever
>to create nuclear ones.

The more long-lived nuclear poisons are themselves valuable nuclear
fuels (plutonium).  When used as fuels, they are broken down into
short-lived isotopes with half-lives of years to decades.  Inside
a century, they are largely gone, replaced by stable isotopes.
-- 
Russ Cage	Ford Powertrain Engineering Development Department
Work:  itivax.iti.org!cfctech!fmeed1!cage   (CHATTY MAIL NOT ANSWERED HERE)
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